Semiconductor light emitting devices, such as Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) or laser diodes, are widely used for many applications. As is well known to those having skill in the art, a semiconductor light emitting device includes a semiconductor light emitting element having one or more semiconductor layers that are configured to those having skill in the art, a light emitting diode or laser diode, generally includes a diode region on a microelectronic substrate. The microelectronic substrate may be, for example, gallium arsenide, gallium phosphide, alloys thereof, silicon carbide and/or sapphire. Continued developments in LEDs have resulted in highly efficient and mechanically robust light sources that can cover the visible spectrum and beyond. These attributes, coupled with the potentially long service life of solid state devices, may enable a variety of new display applications, and may place LEDs in a position to compete with the well entrenched incandescent and fluorescent lamps.
One measure of efficiency of LEDs is the cost per lumen. The cost per lumen for an LED may be a function of the manufacturing cost per LED chip, the internal quantum efficiency of the LED material and the ability to couple or extract the generated light out of the device. An overview of light extraction issues may be found in the textbook entitled High Brightness Light Emitting Diodes to Stringfellow et al., Academic Press, 1997, and particularly Chapter 2, entitled Overview of Device Issues in High-Brightness Light Emitting Diodes, to Craford, at pp. 47-63.
Much development interest and commercial activity recently has focused on LEDs that are fabricated in or on silicon carbide, because these LEDs can emit radiation in the blue/green portions of the visible spectrum. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,416,342 to Edmond et al., entitled Blue Light-Emitting Diode With High External Quantum Efficiency, assigned to the assignee of the present application, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety as if set forth fully herein. There also has been much interest in LEDs that include gallium nitride-based diode regions on silicon carbide substrates, because these devices also may emit light with high efficiency. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,177,688 to Linthicum et al., entitled Pendeoepitaxial Gallium Nitride Semiconductor Layers On Silicon Carbide Substrates, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety as if set forth fully herein.
The efficiency of conventional LEDs may be limited by their inability to emit all of the light that is generated by their active layer. When an LED is energized, light emitting from its active layer (in all directions) reaches the emitting surfaces at many different angles. Typical semiconductor materials have a high index of refraction (n˜2.2-3.8) compared to ambient air (n=1.0) or encapsulating epoxy (n˜1.5). According to Snell's law, light traveling from a region having a high index of refraction to a region with a low index of refraction that is within a certain critical angle (relative to the surface normal direction) will cross to the lower index region. Light that reaches the surface beyond the critical angle will not cross but will experience total internal reflection (TIR). In the case of an LED, the TIR light can continue to be reflected within the LED until it is absorbed. Because of this phenomenon, much of the light generated by conventional LEDs does not emit, degrading its efficiency.
Light extraction has been accomplished in many ways, depending, for example, on the materials that are used to fabricate the diode region and the substrate. For example, in gallium arsenide and gallium phosphide material systems, a thick, p-type, topside window layer may be used for light extraction. The p-type window layer may be grown because high epitaxial growth rates may be possible in the gallium arsenide/gallium phosphide material systems using liquid and/or vapor phase epitaxy. Moreover, current spreading may be achieved due to the conductivity of the p-type topside window layer. Chemical etching with high etch rates and high etch selectivity also may be used to allow the removal of at least some of the substrate if it is optically absorbent. Distributed Bragg reflectors also have been grown between an absorbing substrate and the diode region to decouple the emitting and absorbing regions.
One method of reducing the percentage of TIR light and, thereby increasing the efficiency of the LED, is to create light scattering centers in the form of random texturing on the LED's surface. See Shnitzer, et al., “30% External Quantum Efficiency From Surface Textured, Thin Film Light Emitting Diodes”, Applied Physics Letters 63, Pgs. 2174-2176 (1993). The random texturing is patterned into the surface by using sub micron diameter polystyrene spheres on the LED surface as a mask during reactive ion etching. The textured surface has features on the order of the wavelength of light that refract and reflect light in a manner not predicted by Snell's law due to random interference effects.
Another method of increasing light extraction from an LED is to include a periodic patterning of the emitting surface or internal interfaces which redirects the light from its internally trapped angle to defined modes determined by the shape and period of the surface. See U.S. Pat. No. 5,779,924 to Krames et at.
An increase in light extraction has also been realized by shaping the LED's emitting surface into a hemisphere with an emitting layer at the center. U.S. Pat. No. 3,954,534 to Scifres and Burnham discloses a method of forming an array of LEDs with a respective hemisphere above each of the LEDs. The hemispheres are formed in a substrate and a diode array is grown over them. The diode and lens structure is then etched away from the substrate.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,793,062 discloses a structure for enhancing light extraction from an LED by including optically non-absorbing layers to redirect light away from absorbing regions such as contacts, and also to redirect light toward the LED's surface.
Another way to enhance light extraction is to couple photons into surface plasmon modes within a thin film metallic layer on the LED's emitting surface, which are emitted back into radiated modes. See Köck et al., Strongly Directional Emission From AlGaAs/GaAs Light Emitting Diodes, Applied Physics Letter 57, Pgs. 2327-2329 (1990). These structures rely on the coupling of photons emitted from the semiconductor into surface plasmons in the metallic layer, which are further coupled into photons that are finally extracted.
Light extraction can also be improved by angling the LED chip's side surfaces to create an inverted truncated pyramid. The angled surfaces provide the TIR light trapped in the substrate material with an emitting surface See Krames, et. al., High Power Truncated Inverted Pyramid (Alx Ga1-x)0.5 In0.5 P/GaP Light Emitting Diodes Exhibiting>50% External Qauntum Efficiency, Applied Physics Letters 75 (1999).
Still another approach for enhancing light extraction is photon recycling Shnitzer, et al., “Ultrahigh Spontaneous Emission Quantum Efficiency, 99.7% Internally and 72% Externally, From AlGaAs/GaAs/AlGaAs Double Heterostructures”, Applied Physics Letters 62, Pgs. 131-133 (1993). This method relies on LEDs having a high efficiency active layer that readily converts electrons and holes to light and vice versa. TIR light reflects off the LED's surface and strikes the active layer, where it is converted back to an electron-hole pair. Because of the high efficiency of the active layer, the electron-hole pair will almost immediately be reconverted to light that is again emitted in random directions. A percentage of the recycled light will strike one of the LEDs emitting surfaces within the critical angle and escape. Light that is reflected back to the active layer goes through the same process again.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,657,236, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein as if set forth in its entirety, describes the use of light extraction structures on or within the LED to increase its efficiency. The light extraction structures provide surfaces for reflecting, refracting or scattering light into directions that are more favorable for the light to escape into the package. The structures can be arrays of light extraction elements or disperser layers. The light extraction elements can have many different shapes and are placed in many locations to increase the efficiency of the LED over conventional LEDs. The disperser layers provide scattering centers for light and can be placed in many locations as well. LEDs with arrays of light extraction elements are fabricated with standard processing techniques. Techniques for the manufacture of LEDs with disperser layers are also described.
Published United States Patent Application No. 2002/0123164, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein as if set forth in its entirety, describes light emitting diodes that include a substrate having first and second opposing faces and that is transparent to optical radiation in a predetermined wavelength range and that is patterned to define, in cross-section, a plurality of pedestals that extend into the substrate from the first face towards the second face. A diode region on the second face is configured to emit light in the predetermined wavelength range, into the substrate upon application of voltage across the diode region. A mounting support on the diode region, opposite the substrate is configured to support the diode region, such that the light that is emitted from the diode region into the substrate, is emitted from the first face upon application of voltage across the diode region. The first face of the substrate may include therein a plurality of grooves that define the plurality of triangular pedestals in the substrate. The grooves may include tapered sidewalls and/or a beveled floor. The first face of the substrate also may include therein an array of via holes. The via holes may include tapered sidewalls and/or a floor.